Just picked this up on the Danish news wires. It says that 4 people have been sentenced to prison for their neglicence that led to Italys worst aviation accident in 30 years.

The director of ENAV (the Italian FAA?) was sentenced to 4 years and 4 months, the local ENAV director at Linate as well as an unspecified employee was sentenced to 3 years and 10 months and the fourth recieved a 3 years and 4 months sentence. 3 others were found non guilty.

The sentence comes a year after 4 others recieved prison sentences ranging between 6 and 8 years.

Just a recap of the Linate accident: A Scandinavian Airlines MD-87 was cleared for T/O in thick fog when a Cessna 525 accidentally entered the runway at mid-point after having used the wrong taxi way from the GA apron.There was no ground radar in operation,indeed,it had never been operational in the first place.Slack routines and lack of double checks by the tower personnel was also part of the accident.

The cable car wire was severed by a US Navy (or Marines) EA-3B Prowler operating out of Aviano Air Base in Northeastern Italy.It happened in the Italian alps and killed some 20 people.

Sebolino : The cable car incident occured in Cavalese, Italy Feb 3, 1998 not in Switzerland, the aircraft was and EA-6 Prowler (electronic earfare version of the A-6 Intruder). Becuase of neutrality Switzerland does not allow NATO excercises in its territory.

Quoting FBU 4EVER! (Reply 7):Just a recap of the Linate accident: A Scandinavian Airlines MD-87 was cleared for T/O in thick fog when a Cessna 525 accidentally entered the runway at mid-point after having used the wrong taxi way from the GA apron.There was no ground radar in operation,indeed,it had never been operational in the first place.Slack routines and lack of double checks by the tower personnel was also part of the accident.

There was indeed very poor communication between tower and pilot, because pilot was on different way to runway than tower thought to be. Also they had the system in warehouse ready but didn't installed it for years.